Forty miles from Atlanta, this is nowhere

You Ain't No Picasso has found the holy grail, or something close. That fine blog's got two video clips of Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) performing in Athens, GA in 1997 and 1998. I saw NMH play Lounge Ax (RIP) in the spring of 1998 and it practically changed my life. We're talking transcendent, religious conversion powerful. So if you never got it before, here's your chance. (Disclaimer: I understand this is the kind of talk that sent Mangum into early retirement. I regret employing loaded rhetoric like "religious conversion." But I can't help myself.)

Pitchfork's got a cool interview with Tommy Ramone, the sole remnant (!) of the original crew. And in case you missed it, a scathing assessment of Weezer's latest. No surprise there. And a relatively lukewarm review of Gimme Fiction. Let the indie-cred backlash begin!

Finally, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote a piece on John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats in this week's New Yorker. I always find SFJ's attempts to explain underground rock to NY readers (yeah, technically I am a NY reader, I know) fascinating and disorienting. It's like overhearing a stranger talk about your mother. I'm no Slint fan, but the review of the band's reunion show in NYC was total twilight zone.

In honor of The Mountain Goats, and Darnielle's excellent blog, here's a few great tunes--early, mid and later career:

Going to Georgia (mp3)

West Country Dream (mp3)

Palmcorder Yajna (mp3)

From Zopilote Machine, Full Force Galesburg and We Shall All Be Healed, respectively.